Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, water and milk proteins.

Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Rendering butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, an oil-in-water emulsion; the milk proteins are the emulsifiers. Butter remains a solid when refrigerated, but softens to a solid-yet-spreadable consistency at room temperature due to heavy presence of saturated fat, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35°C (90–95°F). The density of butter is 911 g/L (56.9 lb/ft3).

The color of butter varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals' feed (grass-fed cows corresponding with deeper, darker tones; grain-fed with paler) and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.